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Staying in the moment

How do you write that noise you make when you blow out of your mouth in exasperation and drop your shoulders and slump into the chair…. well there’s plenty of that going on right now.

Between this miserable weather… Will catching ANOTHER bloody lurgy… wonderful nurses that we rely on so heavily unavailable on Uni placement… and the chaos of little kids on school holidays… I tell you, we’re all well and truly over this spinal cord injury thing!! We’ve learnt our lessons, we’re grateful for what we have, we’re stronger and better people… doesn’t that make us ready and deserving of that miracle cure!

I can see my 14 year old son over the past couple of weeks (nearly an adult, but still a baby), using all of his strength and resilience just to stay in one piece. My admiration grows for him daily when he still doesn’t succumb to anger or depression and just gets through each day with a low level of annoyance and aggravation (and a fair bit of swearing at times… somethings you turn a blind eye to in situations like these).

Will was lying on the floor yesterday and I was talking to him (it still catches me in my throat when I see my son lying lifeless unable to roll, adjust his position, lift himself up - it’s definitely more in your face when he’s lying on the floor and not sitting up in an adjustable bed)… I was pestering him about his plans for the next couple of days as we were wanting to make some plans around his rehab.

Will interrupted me and said… “the problem with everyone in this family is that you all spend too much time thinking ahead and worrying about what’s coming up and what you’ve got to do… And that he couldn’t possibly tell me what his plans were because he was trying to stay in the moment!! Oh be careful of what you teach your children!! I smiled and agreed and tried to hide from him my broken heart at watching him so desperately trying to make fun of a technique that was literally keeping his head above water.

Trying to lighten the situation I asked him what made him feel good in his week - one of the things he mentioned was when the Richmond football players came round to see him. The Richmond players have been a saviour since Will’s accident. They play playstation with him, meditate with him, debate the NBL with him and genuinely make him feel like he’s going to be ok. We sometimes judge young men in the AFL - but the Richmond young men have been nothing but kind, caring and generous to Will - and our family will forever be grateful.

In addition to the players - the club has shown us incredible support and continue to do so with an upcoming function that they have asked Nick and I to speak at and will give us a donation from.

I’m sharing the details of this function with Will’s community because I truely think it’s going to be an inspirational evening. I wish I could just sit back and learn from Turia and Jack and be inspired by their stories - but am just as happy to share our journey with others as well (unfortunately I’m a born “over-sharer”).

Please, come along and join us - or pass the details of this function on to your company or your partner’s company and encourage them to support a Club that has gone above and beyond to support Will.

To find out more or to purchase tickets, click on the following link: www.richmondfc.com.au/strongandbold

Happy “Back to School” to all of those exhausted mums, dads and carers out there! Can’t wait to be sending Will back one day too!